


Farewell To A Very Special Friendship

by leobrat



Category: True Blood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-09
Updated: 2011-03-09
Packaged: 2017-10-16 19:40:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/168657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leobrat/pseuds/leobrat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mrs. Stackhouse was more of a mother to him than his own in a lot of ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Farewell To A Very Special Friendship

**Author's Note:**

> This deals with a character who had a very difficult upbringing, facing abuse from his parent and his peers. Please proceed with caution if you will find this upsetting. It’s presented in a rather blunt way, the way I believe this character would have experienced it. Set pre-series, with a working knowledge of events through Season 3, and specifically referencing events in _Cold Ground_.

Lafayette lets his cousin cry into his shoulder for a good hour that morning before they head over to the Stackhouses’. She’s babbling a thousand things she doesn’t want to say in front of Sookie and Jason, about how Mrs. Stackhouse was more of a mother to her than her own mother, and he knows that’s true. True for him, too, in a lot of ways.

It wasn’t like it was for Tara, of course. She grew up running in and out of the Stackhouse place, playing in that goddamn cemetery, sharing Sookie’s clothes and sleeping in her bed. He never felt all that comfortable being so close to Jason- and the invitation was never offered- that is, until they got older and Lafayette could get over how pretty he was...and Lafayette didn’t have to hide any more. Or chose not to hide any more.

But there was more than a handful of times when that good woman fed him when his own mama thought she could starve the demons out of him. And then there was the time Jason stopped his whole baseball team from smearing him with lipstick (back before he started doing it himself). Lafayette was always grateful to Jason for that day but Lafayette also knew that Mrs. Stackhouse put her grandson up to it, sending him back across the baseball field. She knew if she scared those little motherfuckers off herself, they would just get him worse the next day, but everybody listened to Jason Stackhouse in those days. The golden boy. The king of the idiots.

And then there was the time that Adele Stackhouse saved his life, no questions asked.

***

When he was thirteen, he was skinny as a whippet. That didn’t help him out much when Felton Norris and the other inbreds were beating the tar out of him (usually taking turns with two holding him down and one wailing on him until he got tired) but it _did_ help when he found a hiding place before they could get to him. And one time, he found himself hiding on the rafters of the school gym, sitting up perfectly straight, praying to his mama’s Jesus that he didn’t cast a shadow.

They found him, of course, and decided to use him for target practice, hucking rocks the sizes of baseballs up in the air, snickering to each other with stupid, maniacally gleeful smiles on their stupid, ugly faces. “What do you think, Dub, can you catch a bird with that stone?”

Dub laughed. “I can try. Shit, I didn’t know flamingoes could fly!” And they all laughed as Lafayette desperately hung onto the rafter. The rock sailed past, breaking a window behind him. Lafayette breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily the janitor chased them out of the gym soon after- and their aim did not improve, but he stayed hidden. That old asshole had no love for him, and the feeling was mutual. Plus, the boys were chased out of the gym, they might still be at school, waiting outside...It wouldn’t be the first time.

Lafayette waited until it was dark outside, and almost pitch dark in the gym before deciding it was time to climb down. It was cold on the walk home, and he’d given his jacket to Tara that day at lunch. He cut through the woods behind the Stackhouses’ that night, because it was the quickest way, even if it was more than a little creepy walking past that cemetery.

He was shivering and counting the steps to his house (still in the high thousands) when he heard something that sounded like...a _growl_. He didn’t think there was anything in these woods but rabbits and squirrels, but that growl didn’t come from anything small and fluffy. Lafayette froze in his tracks. He could hear steps too, in too irregular of a pattern to be a person, and too many to be _one_...of whatever it was.

Panic bubbled up in his throat and he choked back a scream before blindly choosing a direction and running hard, as fast as he could. His feet were flying over the ground, he hardly felt anything but sheer terror and then he heard a scream that was so loud and so raw, it _couldn’t_ be human, and then a shotgun blast.

“ _Lafayette!_ ” It took him a moment to come to a full-stop and for him to recognize little Sookie Stackhouse’s voice. He bent over, holding his knees and breathing hard, the stitch in his side almost collapsing him. “Oh, Lafayette, are you okay?” She was bending down close to him, softly brushing her hand over the top of his head.

“Are you okay, son?” Mrs. Stackhouse was running after them, surprisingly quick for an old lady, the shotgun propped over her shoulder. “Were those _panthers_? I’m calling the Sherriff this very minute. You come into the house right now, what are you doing out here without a jacket? Never mind that, what are you doing out here so late? Never mind that, let’s get something in your stomach.” And Mrs. Stackhouse efficiently took over, like she always did, strong and kind, and Lafayette ducked his head and quickly wiped away his tears.

“How’d y’all find me?” He gasped out, still not quite breathing right.

Sookie exchanged a panicked look with her grandmother. “I...uh...I just thought I heard something out here,” she mumbled, ducking her own blonde head, and Lafayette didn’t press further. Tara had never let on completely but everyone knew about Sookie Stackhouse’s ‘problem’.

Mrs. Stackhouse had taken him back to her house, and called his mother- who didn’t answer. And then she fed him and gave him a set of Jason’s pajamas and made up the sofa for him. It wasn’t the first time she stepped in for him- or the last.

***

While Tara was taking care of Sookie, Lafayette started cleaning up all the _garbage_ the good people of Bon Temps brought with them under the pretense of condolences. He was relieved when his cousin tossed everyone out of the house in that not-so-subtle way of hers. When they finally had a little peace and quiet to themselves, and Tara was fixing a tray to bring up to Sookie, in case she woke up, Lafayette rose and went to the fireplace mantle, where there was a picture of Mrs. Stackhouse on her wedding day. She was beautiful, just like Sookie.

“Thank you,” he said.


End file.
